Explosions everywhere. An otherwise dark sky is lit up in a grey haze. Some people run - some don't, choosing to stay and watch the explosions. Deafening noise all around, the kind that makes your heart leap to your throat.

Sporadic gunfire - even little children know how to handle guns adroitly these days. A series of explosions go off somewhere to our right and we steer away from that corner, don't want to go with the car to those areas. Water from our dwindling water supply spills over wastefully as a bomb explodes somewhere close by. It must've exploded much sooner than expected, because there are people looking at the area with their mouths open, light fear playing on their faces. A rocket slithers across the air in front of us, any closer and it would've exploded in the car itself.

Far into the horizon, the sky is still smoky - will remain so for the rest of the night. The explosions continue, the end of each one triggering off the start of another...

Me reporting from the war-front? Nope, I'm driving around Bombay suburbs as we celebrate Diwali in full form.

(((Duh, whatever happened to the noise-free Diwali we kept talking about? Double duh. Why? Because despite shuddering every time a loud fire cracker went off somewhere close by, deep down in a far away corner, I kind of smiled with glee. Happy Diwali, i-Landers!!!!)))

“Phattaaack!”

The title of this post. Something that a road side romeo yelled while throwing a fire cracker up into the skies above. It exploded on its way down, somewhere at a distance of about one feet above his left ear.

“Deepavali.. manaaye suhaani

Meri Sai ke haathon mei jaadu ka paani…”

- Dunno the lyrics of this one completely yet, but it is a song from a Sai Baba film – a little girl sings and dances to this innocently catchy song. Heard it sometime while growing up…